Saturday, June 28, 2008

Ah, tree sitters...

I've read about the Berkeley tree protesters before; here is a particularly absurd article about them. Just to clarify--they are protecting a 1920s landscaping project, and preventing a replacement project from being assembled in another area. It could be construed that the current protesters are preventing the construction of a landscaping project that Berkeley protesters will be protesting to save 80 years from now.

Anyway, it was the lines in the article that got me chuckling, so on to it...

"They're very well-trained tree climbers."

"Protesters howled, flung excrement and shook tree branches as campus-hired arborists cut supply lines and removed gear. But by late this week, campus police were conducting delicate negotiations with tree-sitters, offering to provide food and water if protesters would lower their waste on a daily basis in the interest of hygiene. Campus officials ended up giving up the water without concessions; protesters declined to yield their urine."